Fixing Cars
by rhiawoods
Summary: Hermione and her father discuss life, love and philosophy. Well, as much as a four year old cares about, anyway. Short oneshot.


Disclaimer: Hermione is not mine. Everything else, however, is. Well, I suppose Mr. Granger isn't really mine, either…

Fixing Cars

Ted Granger was hunched over the engine of his car, trying to decipher what the complicated diagrams in the manual meant and how in the world they related to the actual parts of the engine. Grabbing a wrench, he loosened a few bolts, not even knowing if they were the right bolts. Ted had no idea why he was out here, in the heat of midsummer, bent over an incomprehensible engine. He was a dentist for heavens sake! Cars 101 wasn't exactly part of his education.

Oh, the vain traditions of his fathers! That was the reason for the car trying to eat his hands. His father had always fixed their cars. Ted had always fixed his cars. He sighed, scratching his head. Maybe it was time to break tradition and actually take the piece of junk to a real auto shop.

Ted was so preoccupied with the bolts and pieces of the engine that he barely noticed when his young daughter came bouncing across the yard and pulled herself up onto the frame of the car, sun-streaked curls blowing every which way in the stiff afternoon breeze. She stared thoughtfully at the innards of the engine for a few minutes.

"Is it magic, daddy?" she asked, tilting her head to one side.

"Is what magic?" Ted grunted, tightening one of the bolts again.

"The car," Hermione answered.

Ted grimaced and squinted at the engine that still escaped his understanding. "No, it's not."

"Then how does it go?"

"The engine. When it works, anyway." Ted set down his wrench, turning a page in the manual.

"Is the engine magic?"

Ted looked at his four year old daughter and chuckled. "No, sweetie, the engine isn't magic either."

"Then how does it work?"

"You know, Nee-nee, I have no idea." Ted gave the engine up as a bad job and shut the manual, turning aside to put the wrench away.

"Do you believe in magic?"

Ted turned back to his daughter, thoughtfully wiping his greasy hands on an equally greasy rag. He considered for a moment before answering. "I think it's different for everybody."

"What's magic for you?" Hermione climbed down from the car, letting Ted slam the hood.

"Your momma," he said, thinking of his wife Mandy, with a voice like an angel and a face to match. He smiled, tapping Hermione on the nose. "And you and your brother."

"He's not magic- he's just a smelly boy."

"He's magic to me." Ted still couldn't believe that Mandy would love him, someone without a penny to his name, still in for years of school. But she did, and together they had two beautiful children. "And someday, you will find a boy that's magic to you. Hopefully not until I'm old and gray."

Hermione giggled, thinking of her dad all gray, like storm clouds full of rain. "You'll never be old, daddy."

Ted grabbed hold of his little girl around the waist and slung her up on his shoulders. "Oh, but I'm already getting old." He pointed to random places on his head. "See here, and here… gray hairs all over the place."

"You're being silly, daddy! There's no gray there!"

"You just can't see it!" Ted spun, getting Hermione to giggle madly. After a few minutes, he slowed, lifting her down onto the lawn. "So, Nee-nee, what's magic for you?"

The little girl frowned thoughtfully. "I think… flowers. And the sun. And babies."

Ted smiled, remembering how thrilled Hermione had been when her little brother had been brought home from the hospital, how her happiness lasted only until he screamed through the night the first time, how she was so excited to hold her baby cousin who had come to visit last month- with her family, of course. "But your brother's a baby."

"He's a boy. Just girl babies are magic," Hermione said, matter of fact.

"You know, Nee-nee, I think there might be magic just in life."

"Why, daddy?"

"Because…" Ted paused, thinking. "Because nobody knows where life starts, nor where it ends."

"Do you know where it ends?"

Ted hesitated. "I don't think it does."

Hermione thought for a second. "But where do you go when you die?"

"Hm… I believe you go to a waiting place."

"Where is it?"

"I don't know."

"What do you wait for?"

"All the people you've ever loved. I think your grandma is waiting for us, right now."

Hermione smiled. She missed her grandma, who had died a few months before. "And grandpa?"

"Yes, him, too."

Father and daughter were quite for a minute, while both thought about the things that had been said.

"I like that." Hermione said quietly.

Ted smiled back, putting his arms around his little girl. "I love you, sweetie."

"I love you too, daddy." Hermione wrapped her arms around her dads neck and gave him a sloppy kiss on the cheek. Father and daughter sat silent for a moment.

"So, Nee-nee, what say you we fix that car together?"

"I think you should just take it to the car doctor," Hermione said, in all her four year old authority.

………

So what do y'all think? Did I make it too heavy for a four year old? Or is it just right? Please review!


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